Why it is honoured
- Its virtue: in a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, the Prophet ﷺ said that his minbar stands over his Pool (al-Hawd).
- A warning: in a hadith narrated by Jabir, he warned that whoever swears a false oath at his minbar has earned the Fire — even over something as small as a green miswak.
How the first minbar came about
- At first the Prophet ﷺ gave long sermons standing, leaning on the trunk of a palm tree.
- A man of Madinah offered to build him a minbar to sit on, and the Prophet ﷺ accepted. The most reliable accounts, noted by Ibn Hajar, name the carpenter as Maymun.
- When the Prophet ﷺ moved to the new minbar, the Companions heard the palm trunk cry out like a she-camel until he placed his hand on it and it calmed (narrated by al-Bukhari from Jabir ibn Abdullah).
Its size
According to Ibn al-Najjar, the Prophet's minbar was about two cubits, a span and three fingers high and one cubit wide, with a backrest one cubit high and two knobs — which the Prophet ﷺ held when seated — a span and two fingers long. It had two steps and a seat.
The minbar through history
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| The Prophet ﷺ and the Rightly Guided Caliphs | Two steps and a seat. |
| Umayyad era | Marwan ibn al-Hakam, in the caliphate of Mu'awiyah, added six steps — nine in all. |
| Abbasid era | Renewed because it had grown old. |
| 656 AH | The mosque and minbar burned; King al-Muzaffar sent a new minbar. |
| 664 AH | Sultan al-Zahir Baybars sent a minbar, used until 797 AH. |
| 797 AH | Sultan al-Zahir Barquq sent a new one. |
| 820 AH | Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh sent a new one. |
| 886 AH | A second fire; the people of Madinah built a minbar of brick. |
| 888 AH | Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbay sent a marble minbar. |
| 998 AH | Ottoman Sultan Murad sent a richly decorated marble minbar — twelve steps (three outside its door, nine inside) under a pointed canopy on four pillars. This is the minbar in the mosque today. |
Source: General Authority — The Prophet's Minbar in the Noble Rawdah